Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 1.djvu/835



whatsoever, or yield up the same cowardly or treacherously, shall suffer death, or such other punishment as a court martial shall direct.

38. The officers and seamen, &c., of all ships appointed for convoy and guard of merchantmen, shall diligently attend upon that charge without delay, according to their instructions, and whosoever shall be faulty therein, shall be punished as a court martial shall direct.

39. If any captain, commander or other officer of any ship or vessel in the service of the United States, shall receive or permit on board his vessel any goods or merchandise, other than for the sole use of his vessel, except gold, silver, or jewels, and except the goods and merchandise of vessels which may be in distress or shipwrecked, or in imminent danger of being shipwrecked, in order to preserve them for the proper owner, without legal orders from the naval department, every person so offending being convicted thereof, by the sentence of a court martial, shall be cashiered, and be for ever afterwards rendered incapable to serve in any place or office in the navy service of the United States.

40. There shall be no wasteful expense of any powder, shot, ammunition, or other stores in the vessels belonging to the United Stats, nor any embezzlement thereof, but the stores and provisions shall be carefully preserved, upon pain of such punishment, to be inflicted upon the offenders, abettors, buyers and receivers, as shall be by a court martial found just in that behalf.

41. Every person in the navy who shall unlawfully burn or set fire to any kind of public property, not then appertaining to an enemy, pirate or rebel, being convicted of any such offence by the sentence of a court martial, shall suffer death.

42. Care shall be taken in steering and conducting every ship belonging to the United States, so that through wilfulness, negligence, or other defaults, no ship be stranded or hazarded, upon pain that such as shall be found guilty therein, be punished as the offence, by a court martial, shall be judged to deserve.

43. Every officer or other person in the navy, who shall knowingly make or sign a false muster, or procure the making or signing thereof, or shall aid or abet in the same, shall be cashiered and rendered incapable of further employment in the navy service of the United States, and shall forfeit all the pay and subsistence money due to him.

44. Every person guilty of mutiny, desertion or disobedience to his superior officer on shore, acting in the proper line of his duty, shall be tried by a court martial, and suffer the like punishment for every such offence, as if the same had been committed at sea, on board any ship or vessel of war in the service of the United States.

45. If any person belonging to any ship or vessel of war in the service of the United States, shall, when on shore, on duty, or otherwise, plunder, abuse, or maltreat any inhabitant, or injure his property in any way, such person shall be punished as a court martial shall direct.

46. All faults, disorders and misdemeanors which shall be committed on board any ship belonging to the United States, and which are not herein mentioned, shall be punished according to the laws and customs in such cases at sea.

47. No court martial, to be held or appointed by virtue of this act, shall consist of more than thirteen, nor less than five persons, to be composed of such commanders of squadrons, captains and sea lieutenants, as are then and there present, and as are next in seniority to the officer who presides; but no lieutenant shall sit on a court martial, held on a captain, or a junior lieutenant on that of a senior.

48. Every member of a court martial shall take the following oath: “I, A. B. do swear, that I will well and truly try and impartially determine the cause of the prisoner now to be tried, according to the rules of the navy of the United States. So help me God.” Which oath shall